Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What country has just sentenced a man to eight months in prison for wearing an anti-police t-shirt, and another man to three months in prison for telling an “abhorrent” joke on Facebook? Iran, perhaps? China? No, it’s Britain.
Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain in recent years. The birthplace of John Milton (“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience”), and John Stuart Mill (“Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service”), has become a cesspit of censoriousness.
The frequency with which the police and legal system now throw into jail anyone judged to have committed a “speech crime” is alarming.
On October 11, Barry Thew, a 39-year-old man from Manchester, was sentenced to eight months in jail—eight months!—for the crime of wearing a t-shirt that said, “One less pig — perfect justice”.
Read more here;
What country has just sentenced a man to eight months in prison for wearing an anti-police t-shirt, and another man to three months in prison for telling an “abhorrent” joke on Facebook? Iran, perhaps? China? No, it’s Britain.
Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain in recent years. The birthplace of John Milton (“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience”), and John Stuart Mill (“Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service”), has become a cesspit of censoriousness.
The frequency with which the police and legal system now throw into jail anyone judged to have committed a “speech crime” is alarming.
On October 11, Barry Thew, a 39-year-old man from Manchester, was sentenced to eight months in jail—eight months!—for the crime of wearing a t-shirt that said, “One less pig — perfect justice”.
Read more here;
You post about other countries with the complete disrgard for what your own is and has been doing for years.
You seem to enjoy cherry picking little world news items that pop up occasionally without seemingly having the ability, before posting some nonsense, of performing a simple google search to compare your country's idiocy firstly
You don't even take notice of your daily offerings from the likes of Fox News (oxymoronic name if ever there was one) before presuming to compare your failed state with another country.
Bolstering your lagging "America is the Greatest" qoutient by casting your eyes at other countries is like ignoring your kids "F" report card and commenting on how the neighbours kids getting a Fulbright scholarship is a "typical pansy-assed" expectation.
Losing freedom of speech may be drivel to you, but it's not to most of us.
Quote:
You post about other countries with the complete disrgard for what your own is and has been doing for years.
Your post exposes your ignorance. I highlight all kinds of issues in the USA.
Quote:
You seem to enjoy cherry picking little world news items that pop up occasionally without seemingly having the ability, before posting some nonsense, of performing a simple google search to compare your country's idiocy firstly
Exposing the war on our freedom of speech is not cherry picking. Again, freedom of speech may not be important to you, but it is to me. And I have frequently posted about freedom issues in the USA.
Quote:
You don't even take notice of your daily offerings from the likes of Fox News (oxymoronic name if ever there was one) before presuming to compare your failed state with another country.
There are plenty of Fox bashers on this site, so we don't need another one. But maybe I'll post about how the BBC is a failed news source. Criticizing Britain appears to be a sore spot for you.
Quote:
Bolstering your lagging "America is the Greatest" qoutient by casting your eyes at other countries is like ignoring your kids "F" report card and commenting on how the neighbours kids getting a Fulbright scholarship is a "typical pansy-assed" expectation.
Wow! Hit a sore spot? When your defense of Britain is "the other guys are worse" and it's all you have, you are in trouble. Wake up! Britain is a poster child for Big Government and those poor people are losing freedom every year.
As usual you go off on a diatribe of how I don't value freedom of speech due to disagreeing with your premise that:
1/ Britain is suffering a greater loss of Freedom of Speech than the U.S.
2/ Britain's "alledged" loss of Freedom of Speech is as a result of Big Government.
3/ Britain (as stated clearly in your post title) is down some deliterious path you haven't already embarked on and arguably may be waaay ahead of them on.
In short I value Freedom of Speech as much as the next guy but we're not discussing that are we? We ARE discussing your surmisal that Britain is suffering a greater loss of that freedom than yourselves and through no less of a silly notion of it's government being of a greater interference to it's citizens freedoms than yours is currently and perhaps has been for decades.
Have you looked at your own country's nonsense with legislating through the Patriot Act and Homeland Security? Have you even thought for a second of the TSA setting up road blocks on your highways for inspecting vehicles willy nilly? How about incarcerating folks indefinitely without Miranda rights or recourse to Habeus Corpus if some retard like a digruntled neighbour designates them a possible terrorist threat. I could go on and on and on but you should get the idea your premise has a huge hole through it's middle without me needing to.
While obviously there are cases where an individual has his constitutional rights violated Rev. Edward Pinkney: The Preacher Who Dared to Invoke God | Black Agenda Report our constitution does give some protection to individual speech that. The laws in your two examples would be clearly unconstitutional in the USA.
Brusan has correctly pointed out that since 9/11 we have given up a lot of liberty for the sake of security.
In US the history is much different from UK or eruope. Its actaulyl a history of anti=european influence 'really. The pendulum of governamnt power is always swing back and forth but its on a smaller governamtn poath now and of course even in countries around the world comminication makes governamnt control very difficult.
What country has just sentenced a man to eight months in prison for wearing an anti-police t-shirt, and another man to three months in prison for telling an “abhorrent” joke on Facebook? Iran, perhaps? China? No, it’s Britain.
Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain in recent years. The birthplace of John Milton (“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience”), and John Stuart Mill (“Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service”), has become a cesspit of censoriousness.
The frequency with which the police and legal system now throw into jail anyone judged to have committed a “speech crime” is alarming.
On October 11, Barry Thew, a 39-year-old man from Manchester, was sentenced to eight months in jail—eight months!—for the crime of wearing a t-shirt that said, “One less pig — perfect justice”.
Read more here;
First, I wonder if you actually read the article and understand the circumstances under which Thew was sent to jail.
Second, Britain never had a first amendment. The freedom to say what you want is tempered by the public distress and alarm it may cause.
Third, Thew was not given 8 months for wearing an offensive T-shirt. He was given 4 months. The other 4 months were the suspended sentence from a previous conviction.
[quote=Roadking2003;26562828]Losing freedom of speech may be drivel to you, but it's not to most of us.
"Your post exposes your ignorance. I highlight all kinds of issues in the USA."
"Exposing the war on our freedom of speech is not cherry picking. Again, freedom of speech may not be important to you, but it is to me. And I have frequently posted about freedom issues in the USA."
"Wow! Hit a sore spot? When your defense of Britain is "the other guys are worse" and it's all you have."
-----------
It happens it's not all I have but rather it's all I need! Here's an opportunity for you to contribute to a thread that very explicitly illustrates your contention about "big government" right here:
I suggest you spend less time casting about for the rare example in other countries and focus more on the DAILY offerings from your own.
Last edited by BruSan; 10-19-2012 at 08:10 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
